In my senior years of life, I face a dilemma every time I awaken. First, I’m thankful to have another day to be alive. At my age, I do not take that very special gift for granted.

The dilemma begins when I think about what to eat for breakfast. Should I have the heart healthy cereal or go for a piece of homemade banana bread filled with chocolate chips? This decision is not simply about what to have for breakfast.

It’s also about what I should eat for lunch and dinner, how much should I exercise my aging body and what vitamins and prescription pills must I continue to take to help keep me breathing.

A larger question faces everyone past the age of 60. “Is the goal in life to live as long as you can or live as if today might be your last day?

I have known more than a few 90+ year olds and I am amazed how some still exercise their independence.

Yet there are consequences for some.

They have outlived most of their friends. Some have lived longer than their own children. They have required assistant living support or full nursing home care.

Some are mostly immobile and spend their days watching television and spending a few moments with a visitor.

At the risk of being a bit insensitive, I remember an aide in the nursing home that housed my mother for her last two years saying to me, “Everyone in here is just waiting to die.”

Where we live matters to how we feel. According to Forbes Health Magazine, the percentage of older adults living in nursing homes has declined while the percentage of older adults remaining in their homes has increased.

With in-home care available, the choice to stay in a familiar and more comfortable environment makes sense. Older Americans fear loss of independence and having to move from their homes even worse than they might fear death.

Like everyone else, I do not know how my life will end, but it’s pretty certain that there will be pain involved. People get old. They get sick. They take medicine to keep themselves alive, but eventually they die from a short or long term illness.

My father died after he was in a coma for 26 days. My mother died from her fourth heart attack. My oldest sister died from a battle with depression complicated by a prescription pill addiction. My other sister passed away after eight years of fighting an undiagnosed illness.

The other morning something written by actor Richard Gere caught my eye. He talked about his friend’s mother who exercised, ate healthy, and never drank alcohol. She’s now 76 with bone marrow cancer. Her husband eats bacon in large quantities, never exercises, and drinks every day. His doctor says that at age 81, the man has the health of someone much younger than him.

His wife says, “If I had known that my life would end like this, I would have lived it to the fullest, enjoying everything I was told not to do!”

Richard Gere says, “None of us will get out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself as something secondary. Eat delicious food. Walk in the sun. Go out and enjoy. Share the precious truth that is in your heart. Be silly, be kind, be both good and bad. There is simply no time for the rest.”

So, I have decided that the goal of my life is to live as long as I can and to die with no regrets.

I do not regret past relationships that didn’t work out or many other mistakes I’ve made that have brought me to my seventh decade of living.

The lessons have helped form the person that I am today along with a very special lady who keeps my heart fluttering like I’m still a teenager.

No matter how much we take care of ourselves, there are no guarantees that the woman who eats a bowl of granola every morning will outlive the guy who eats two chocolate doughnuts for breakfast.

Comedian George Burns, who had lived to be 100 said, “‘To stay young you have to keep moving and doing. At 87, I can’t afford to die. It would break me. I go out to dinner, have a few drinks and to a show two or three times a week. I don’t believe a lot of this medical stuff. They say everything you eat and drink causes cancer. Don’t pay too much attention to that. I had a good physical and my doctor said he feels fine. ‘I’m popularizing old age. Now people can hardly wait to get old.”

Well George, I think we can wait a little longer to be old. Time alone will make that happen.

The Poet Laureate, Maya Angelou gives another perspective about getting old. “Most people don’t grow up. Most people age,” she said. “They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and they call that maturity. What that is, is aging.”

With all due respect to Maya’s wisdom, I disagree with her first five words. I don’t want to grow up entirely. I want to unleash the child inside me. Come outside, kid. Play with me. Put me on the swings and kick my feet until I can almost touch the clouds. Help me step across the stones that go from one side of the creek to the other. And if I should stumble and step into the water, let me laugh instead of complain like an old codger because my sneakers got all wet.

I’m going to have that piece of chocolate chip banana bread for breakfast. I’ll slather it with butter, too, but just to remove a little guilt from my mind, I’ll enjoy it with a glass of orange juice.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com